A Bully At The Bully Pulpit

GOP has lost the ability to show compassion for fellow Americans

Is it possible that Donald Trump misunderstood the use of his bully pulpit? Did he interpret it to mean to be a bully? If his actions yesterday are any indication the answer is a resounding excruciating yes. The only solace is that the Republicans are getting what they deserve.

When faced with the prospect of a losing vote on health care reform Trump issued an ultimatum to the GOP house. Vote on it tomorrow, make it pass or I will let Obamacare stay.

So today a newly castrated Speaker Ryan will hold a vote to try to pass a mishmash of a bill – a bill that very few know its contents.

Last minute changes were made last night, and many representatives have not even read the bill, nor has it been scored by the Congressional Budget Office.

This is not how we govern. The unprecedented haphazard, slapping together of one of the most consequential pieces of legislation since Obamacare is an abomination. How dare they screw with people’s lives so cavalierly? People will literally live and die if they get this wrong, and so far it has been very, very wrong as 24 million people are set to lose their insurance.

Conservatives only concern is a free market, not people’s health. They want mandated coverage completely stripped from the bill; they want women to have to pay more for maternity care and childbirth. They want to eliminate coverage for preventative care, mental health, and now it is rumored that pre-existing conditions and the ability to keep your children on your health care plan until the age of 26 may go. In other words, the rich will be fine, and the rest of us screwed.

Make no mistake, the only purpose and focus of the Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act was to take down a key piece of President Obama’s legacy.

They didn’t want the Black man to be successful as president. Senator Mitch McConnell made that clear from day one of Obama’s presidency. If their goal had to been to improve Americans access to healthcare, to make it more affordable than they would have taken a completely different approach. They would have come up with a plan (that they had eight years to do) that would have made it better, fixed the problems with the ACA, rather than to dial back to a system that didn’t work and for too many Americans deprived them of the ability, including children to get health insurance.

Whatever the outcome of today’s vote, what has become clearer than ever is that Republicans don’t have any regard for the true needs of the American public.

Entrenched in an ideology that is racist, classist, and sexist they have lost the ability to feel compassion for their fellow Americans.

As for Trump, he is a pathetic example of a leader, a bully who only cares about winning, no matter what the cost to the people he is supposed to serve.